Coast Lumber Company built the home on 1114 N 7th St. in 1910. The president of the company and the owner of the home was Lincoln Coate. Coate built this house with $7000 dollars and lived in it with his two relatives Dale V. Coate and Ernest C. Coate.
Mr. Coate sold the house in 1912, after five years of living in it to Jeremiah W Robinson. Mr. Robinson was at that time the Deputy Treasurer of Boise. In 1915, he was elected as the Mayor. During his time in office, Robinson headed Boise’s branch of the City Beautiful Movement. Through this movement, parks, such as Julia Davis, were erected in Boise. Unfortunately, Robinson was the subject of a successful election recall in 1916. He was only Mayor for one year. This recall ended his public life and he disappeared almost a decade afterwards. The third owner of the house was a certain Mr. Bell of Boise, whose first name is unknown. During World War II, he converted the home into apartments. It is now estimated that there were roughly six to twelve bedrooms at that time. After the war the house was used for boarding and by the 1970’s the house had fallen into disrepair. During the 1980’s the house was converted back into a family residence. It was bought by the current owners in 1986.
The current style of the home is described as Craftsman with an overlay of Colonial Revival. It has a sandstone base that comes from the Table Rock quarry. The second floor and dormers are clad with wooden shingles that are painted blue and accompanied by white trim. Another hallmark of the craftsman style are the exposed roof hangers and the skirted roof. The house now has four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, parlor, converted sleeping porch, and attic. Altogether, the house is a total of 3560 square feet. The spacious backyard shares room with the new garage, which was designed to perfectly match the house. The majority of the furniture in the house was inherited from the current owner’s family. Because of this, the furniture comes from roughly the same period from which the house was built.
All owners of this house have made their own changes to this residence. For example, during the time in which the house was used for boarding, each bedroom was equipped with its own sink. To this day, in the surviving bedrooms, the sinks remain. Originally, the home had five bedrooms and one and a half baths, whereas it now has four bedrooms and two and a half baths. In the early 1980’s, to solve the issue of squeaky floors, it was decided to install wall-to-wall carpeting. This diminished the craftsman-like interior. Also in this time, the formerly modest brick fireplace was converted into a hefty marble hearth. During its run as a boarding house, the front hallway was made to be a dark, narrow corridor. When the current family bought the house, they discovered there to be built-in enclaves incased in drywall. Since its purchase, they have worked to restore the home to its original craftsman style.
The father and his children installed wood floors throughout the home to better fit its style. They also tore down the marble fireplace and replaced it with a polished wood exterior. Another neat feature in their house is the sliding pocket door in the dining room that is mahogany on one side and oak on the other. In addition to that, the back porch features a "jealous husband's icebox", it's half inside, and half outside. That way, the milkman wouldn't have to walk all the way into the house. In the second story, what used to be a sleeping porch features large windows - built during a tuberculosis outbreak with the intent of curing the disease with fresh air.
Because of the date that this house was built, it shares a unique historical tie with the North End in that it was one of the first houses its area. In a picture taken the year the house was built, the house is seen - next to it's now across-the-street neighbors. It has been said that during the sixties, the home used to house lavish dinner parties.
1114 North 7th Street is without a doubt a key house in one of the most popular neighborhoods in Boise, Idaho.

Building submitted by Aubree Vandercar and Molly Myers Source: von Tagen family

A Note On Accuracy
The Idaho Architecture Project (IAP) is a community engagement initiative from Preservation Idaho. All images on this website were taken by IAP participants unless otherwise noted. This catalog consists of submissions from community members, students, historians and preservation experts. Because of the varied nature of these submissions from novice to expert, there may be historical or narrative inaccuracies. Please contact us to report any necessary corrections.